Security Questions: When a Wrong Answer Is Actually Right

Source: Adobe Stock

You know those fun questions on social media, like “If your superhero name was your mom’s maiden name + your dad’s middle name + the name of your first pet, then what would it be?” Or what about those quizzes that can guess which city you should live in based on a few personal questions? Those seem harmless, right? You do the quizzes or share your answers to the questions in the comments and then you forget about it. But what happens afterwards? Who sees your information?

The simple answer? Bad actors who would love nothing more than to use your “superhero name” to bypass your security questions. What security questions, you ask? The ones that are part of your login process to your bank account, email account, or other personal and professional secure systems. Security questions are a weak form of multi-factor authentication (MFA) offered by several companies across the internet. Fortunately, companies know it is best practice to use MFA when asking customers/members to log into their systems, as it makes it more difficult for bad actors to compromise your account. Unfortunately, too many companies have taken the path of least resistance when it comes to creating options for security questions. This is leading to a level of predictability in the default questions made available to you. See if any of the following questions ring a bell: